Abstract
Due to their convergent evolution, dogs have been suggested as a good model for the evolution of human social skills, such as tolerance and cooperativeness. However, recent studies have revealed that wolves (dogs’ closest undomesticated relatives) are more tolerant and cooperative with conspecifics than dogs. It is still possible, though, that selection during domestication enhanced cooperative inclinations specifically towards humans, predicting better cooperation with humans in dogs than in wolves. We tested this hypothesis by comparing similarly human-raised wolves and dogs when cooperating with a familiar human partner in a string-pulling task. Both dogs and wolves were highly successful with the human partner, highlighting that dog-human cooperation could have evolved based on wolves’ social skills. However, wolves and dogs differed in how they cooperated with their human partners with wolves being more likely to initiate movement leading the interaction with humans, whereas dogs were more likely to wait for the human to initiate action and then follow. Accordingly, we propose that during the course of domestication, after an initial reduction in fear of humans, dogs were selected for increased submissive inclinations (Deferential Behaviour Hypothesis) in order to minimize conflicts over resources, to ensure safe co-habitation and co-working in a way that humans lead and dogs follow.
Highlights
Due to their convergent evolution, dogs have been suggested as a good model for the evolution of human social skills, such as tolerance and cooperativeness
To understand the evolution of our exceptional skills, researchers have suggested dogs (Canis familiaris) as a good model of human cooperation based on humans and dogs having been exposed to similar environmental pressures, thereby potentially representing an example of convergent evolution[1,2,3]
In line with the idea, our previous results on cooperative interactions between conspecifics using the loose-string paradigm revealed that wolves can be highly successful in simultaneously pulling the two ends of a rope to move a tray close enough to get access to the food positioned on top[8]
Summary
Due to their convergent evolution, dogs have been suggested as a good model for the evolution of human social skills, such as tolerance and cooperativeness. In line with the idea, our previous results on cooperative interactions between conspecifics using the loose-string paradigm revealed that wolves can be highly successful in simultaneously pulling the two ends of a rope to move a tray close enough to get access to the food positioned on top[8] Though, in this task, our dogs performed rather poorly, which could be due to a reduction either in their cognitive understanding of different components of the task or in their tolerance towards conspecifics preventing dogs from working simultaneously at the apparatus[9]. The human partner was instructed not to communicate with the animal and once touching the rope, either to pull in unison with the animal or pull no matter what after 3 seconds
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